"High in Calories and Low in Nutrients": When Adolescents Share Pictures of Food Online

07 Apr 2016 --- A new study from the University of Gothenburg show that adolescents like to present foods that are high in calories, but low in nutrients, in social media.

Previous studies have found that interactions around food in social media can influence adolescents’ consumption of candy and their willingness to try unfamiliar foods. Research has also shown that food images stimulate areas of the brain that are associated with appetite in children and adolescents.

Analyzed Instagram accounts
The new study, published in the scientific journal Appetite, is based on an analysis of over 1000 Instagram accounts belonging to Scandinavian adolescents.
 
Eighty-five per cent of the accounts shared at least one food image.
 
“The most common food items were candy, cookies and other baked goods, sweet drinks, chocolate and ice cream. Overall, these types of high-calorie and low-nutrient food items could be found in 68 percent of the images posted on Instagram,” says Christopher Holmberg at the Department of Food and Nutrition, and Sport Science and one of the researchers behind the study entitled “Adolescents’ presentation of food in social media: An explorative study.”
 
Only 22 percent of the pictures displayed fruits and vegetables.